Brian S. Doyle
The Cy Ranch Boys won their sixth consecutive District 10-6A championship on the strength of titles by Kyle Bui at 106, Kooper Good at 138, and Ismael Sierra at 150. Ranch finished ahead of runner-up Langham Creek by eleven points. To symbolize how this was a team win, the four Cy Ranch boys that did not place, added 19 points to the team total from their advancement and activity points. Langham Creek had four second place finishers. If just one of them had won, that might have pushed them over the top for the victory, so the DNP wrestlers’ points carried a lot of weight.
Cy Creek had the most champion wrestlers with four, followed by Cy Springs with two. Langham Creek, Cy Woods, Cy Falls, Bridgeland, Jersey Village, and Cy Fair all had one champion.
Team Standings:
1st Cypress Ranch 212.0
2nd Langham Creek 201.0
3rd Cypress Creek 181.0
4th Cypress Woods 164.0
5th Cypress Falls 161.0
6th Bridgeland 137.5
7th Jersey Village 119.0
8th Cypress Fairbanks 109.0
9th Cypress Springs 109.0
10th Cypress Ridge 106.5
11th Cypress Lakes 88.5
12th Cypress Park 38.0
106 lbs: Fourth seed Trevor Leuck of Langham Creek pinned his way to the final to meet top seed Kyle Bui of Cy Ranch. Bui had full control of this match from the outset, racking up 9 points in the first period and another 4 points before Leuck could score his first points. Bui wins with MD 15-5.
1st Kyle Bui 25-7 Cy Ranch
2nd Trevor Leuck 15-21 Langham Creek
3rd Marco Gutierrez 27-14 Jersey Village
4th Diego Guerrero 6-8 Cy Woods
113 lbs: First versus second seed in this final, with Diego Morales-Ayala of Cy Falls facing off against Kamren Rucker of Bridgeland. The referees had to settle some scoring issues after the first period, but when the dust settled, Rucker entered the second period with a 4-3 lead. That lead did not last long as Morales-Ayala escaped immediately after the whistle. He scored a takedown towards the end of the period and sunk a half and turned Rucker and the ref slapped the mat at 3:30.
1st Diego Morales-Ayala 34-4 Cy Falls
2nd Kamren Rucker 27-15 Bridgeland
3rd Collin Tingley 21-13 Cy Woods
4th Angelo Botello-Torres 23-15 Langham Creek
120 lbs: In the first weight class with ranked wrestlers, both ranked wrestlers finished where they were seeded, 3rd and 4th. The unranked wrestlers also finished where they were seeded, 1st and 2nd. First seed Christian Magana of Cypress Springs pinned his way to the finals to take on Wilfer Chuta-Saloj of Cy Lakes. After neither wrestler scored a point in the first period, Magana began on top and proceeded to turn Chuta-Saloj and get a 3-point nearfall. Chuta-Saloj eventually reversed, but couldn’t get any additional points. 3-2 in the third Chuta-Saloj picks bottom, and gets turned again, this time for a 2-point nearfall. Again, he reversed, but just could get Magana to his back. Magana wins a 5-4 decision.
1st Christian Magana 24-14 Cy Springs
2nd Wilfer Chuta-Saloj 30-9 Cy Lakes
3rd Jaydon Rodriguez 38-16 Cy Falls #12
4th Coby Rankin 36-14 Langham Creek #14
126 lbs: #5 Eli Esquivel had not been on the mat since taking a medical forfeit after winning his first two matches during the Chicken Wing Tournament on January 13th. The 2023 126 lb. District champ didn’t seem to miss a beat as he only gave up one point in his first two matches. He would wrestle #10 Mahir Ali of Cy Creek in the Finals. Ali was last year’s 113 lb. District champ.
Esquivel struck with first takedown before blood time. Mahir escaped and got a takedown right before the end of the period to lead 3-2 going into the second period. After the two were twisted like a pretzel, Esquivel got an escape, but again Ali scored the takedown right before the end of the period to extend the lead to 5-3 . Ali chose bottom and reversed , and both wrestlers exchanged another reversal each. With the score 9-6 and 0:25 left, Esquivel escaped, but couldn’t get anything to go. It seemed like Ali was a step ahead of Esquivel the entire match,…
